BJP aligning with extremist groups in Tripura, says Yechury

Kolkata: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury today accused the BJP of practising “double standards” and said the party that projects itself as a nationalist force across the country had joined hands with “extremist organisations” in poll-bound Tripura.

The saffron party will face defeat at the hands of the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Assembly elections in Tripura will be BJP’s “Waterloo”, he claimed.

The CPI(M) leader also said that the BJP was trying to unite anti-Left forces in the state to win the polls.

“They (the BJP) are trying to bring together anti-Left forces and extremist organisations. They have already entered into an alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), they are negotiating with others too,” Yechury told reporters here.

The BJP, on one hand, has been thrusting its idea of ‘Hindutva nationalism’ upon people and, on the other, it is aligning with the divisive forces in Tripura, the CPI(M) leader alleged.

“The IPFT is now claiming that the BJP has assured them that their demand for a separate rebel state will be considered,” he said.

The IPFT, an anti-Left tribal party, has been seeking a separate state for the indigenous communities of Tripura.

The party recently said that it was holding talks with the BJP for a pre-poll alliance.

“The BJP is practising double standards… The party is contradicting its own ideology of Hindutva nationalism and trying to create a division between tribals and non-tribals,” he said.

Tripura will go to polls on 18 February and the results for the 60 constituencies of the state will be declared on 3 March. The CPI(M)-led Left Front has been power in the state since 1993.